Debate over the public safety network is becoming a political football. |
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On one side are T-Mobile and Sprint, which have pushed lawmakers heavily to allow the auction to proceed as planned. They hope to jump on the so-called LTE bandwagon and compete even more with AT&T and Verizon, which already have access to similar spectrum.

“There’s a huge competitive benefit to making this spectrum available,” Kathleen Ham, vice president of regulatory affairs for T-Mobile, said in an interview with POLITICO. She added that T-Mobile sees its role in the debate as bringing “some of the substance.”

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On the other side are AT&T and Verizon. For one thing, the nation’s top two carriers already have access to speedy networks. It’s widely believed the FCC could prevent them from bidding on the D-Block in order to let other competitors have a piece of the pie.

The companies also seem wary of any plan that would let public safety automatically roam on their 4G networks, as the FCC proposed.

“We didn’t buy that spectrum ... to give that spectrum over to public safety in times of an emergency, and our customers need to communicate in times of emergency as well,” an AT&T executive told POLITICO. The source added the company would “oppose vigorously any attempt to exclude us” from a possible D-Block auction.

That battle for the wireless marketplace is now playing out in the public safety debate, as reflected by the companies’ lobbying disclosures. AT&T and Verizon shelled out about $12.4 million and almost $13 million, respectively, in expenses last year in part to defeat any D-Block auction.

Device companies like Motorola also spent considerable sums to argue against that plan, according to federal disclosures.

Sprint spent $2 million in lobbying expenses over the same period, mobilizing in part to battle back reallocation. T-Mobile, meanwhile, shelled out around $3 million for the same.

The telecom titans have also taken to supporting public safety stakeholders as part of their war for the wireless future.

Take the Public Safety Alliance, which counts a broad swath of first responders as supporters, including the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials. The group wants public safety agencies to be allocated D-Block airwaves and has brought top first responders to Washington to make the point.

But the PSA’s top supporters include AT&T and Verizon, as well as Alcatel-Lucent and Motorola, which make the network infrastructure and devices many public safety agencies use.

Meanwhile, Sprint and T-Mobile are among the supporters of another coalition, Connect Public Safety Now, which is opposed to the PSA’s effort and agrees with the FCC’s plan for auction. The coalition also counts MetroPCS and Cellular South as supporters.

Readers' Comments (2)

The 'tussle' is over government control of the internet. this is a side issue of that one.

ON this issue, I say let the cops use the cameras. The issues are deep and we have all seen them played out in the action thrillers where tapping into business cameras allows the watchers to locate people walking down the street.